CSBG Archive

Comic Book Alphabet of Cool – W

Today, let’s take a look at a great artist who is on a bit of a tough luck string when it comes to his art gigs.

Pete Woods

Pete Woods originally broke into the comic industry in the mid 90s, working as an intern at Wildstorm. While at Wildstorm, he had the chance to do fill-in work here and there. I remember seeing his work on an issue of Warren Ellis’ Stormwatch and thinking, “I’ve never heard of this guy, but he’s actually pretty good.”

Stormwatch got him work on Backlash…

Perhaps based off of his Stormwatch (or Backlash) work, Woods did a fill-in stint on Ellis’ former title, Excalibur.

Not Woods’ best work, but it got him his next gig, a nice run on Deadpool with Joe Kelly.

Woods even drew the acclaimed Deadpool #11, which is not in any trade paperback collections by Marvel, which is weird, because it was one of the strongest Marvel issues of the 90s.

After Deadpool, Woods went to DC, where he really established himself as the artist on Robin.

On Robin, Woods went from being a good artist to being a great artist, drawing the book for almost FIFTY issues (with very few missed issues – if any, I don’t recall any offhand, but I figure he had to take AN issue off here and there, right?).

From Robin, Woods went to Detective Comics.

Then he did a short stint on Catwoman leading up to One Year Later.

Woods helped bring Superman back from One Year Later.

A DC exclusive artist now, Woods’ tenure at DC, which should have been on a major upswing, instead hit a bit of a down note.

First, Woods reunited with his Catwoman partner, Will Pfeifer, to do Amazons Attack, which was one of the most panned series of 2007 (Woods’ art was still very good, though!).

Then Woods did a few issues of Countdown to Final Crisis.

And now he’s working on Infinity, Inc. for the next few issues before it is inevitably cancelled (not said as an insult of the book, but come on, when you have to completely retool a book FIVE ISSUES IN, it usually is not a great sign of longevity).

This is disheartening, because Pete Woods is one of the best artists DC has, and I’d love to see him do high profile work again. It’s bizarre, and more than a bit annoying, to see a guy do the standard “do small stuff then work your way up to big stuff” journey, only to go right back down to small stuff.

Here is the website of his Studio, Periscope Studios and here is his personal website.

owen gieni

Cheers to that! His art made a giant leap with Catwoman I believe, where he removed the heavy lines and most of the shadow work to give a detailed, almost European vibe. He’s great. I’m not sure I agree about Infinity Inc though, for one, I started the title when he came on, and I’m sure I’m not the only one. Also, maybe he just wanted to work with Peter Milligan. That doesn’t sound so outlandish.

Brian Cronin

I’m sure he did want to work with Milligan, Owen, but to come on when the series was already in trouble, that just seems like a waste of his talents. Had he LAUNCHED the book, then sure, but to come on when the book already looks sunk?

I think he could do better. Heck, maybe he can do a NEW series with Milligan! That’d rock.

Carlos Futino

Amazons Attack and Countdown don’t fit the “Small Work” description. They are big events. Wether or not they turned out to be good (and God knows AA didn’t) doesn’t take away from the fact that those were big gigs.

Carlos, I don’t think that Brian meant that with Amazons Attack and Countdown Woods gone from top work to small work (they were intended to be big events by DC, sure), but that he had the “pleasure” to work on two of DC’s most criticisized books of the recent year. And then came Infinity Inc. and didn’t make the situation any better.

wwk5d

Well, Woods seems talented and likeable enough as an artist to survive AA and Infinity. I guess people thought the titles would be better received…maybe instead of minis or new launches, he should work on an already established title? I’d be interested in seeing his take on the Legion of Superheroes…or maybe the Teen Titans?